Sindhu, Sameer sail into quarterfinals

Bangkok, January 21

PV Sindhu and Sameer Verma stormed into the quarterfinals of the Thailand Open Super 1000 badminton tournament after registering straight-game wins but HS Prannoy bowed out here today.

Olympics silver medallist Sindhu expectedly outclassed Malaysia’s world No. 92 Kisona Selvaduray 21-10 21-12 in a second-round contest that lasted just 35 minutes. She will face Thailand’s Ratchanok Inthanon next.

“I was remembering last week’s tournament and each point was really important for me,” Sindhu said.

World No. 31 Sameer also continued his impressive run, stunning world No. 17 Rasmus Gemke 21-12 21-9 in just 39 minutes for his third victory over the Danish player. The Indian, who had shocked Malaysia’s eighth seed Lee Zii Jia in the opening round, will face third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the quarterfinals. “I was very confident before the match. I came prepared. I’m feeling very confident, so let’s see. It will be tough (against Antonsen) but I will play my best,” Sameer said.

The mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also made it to the quarterfinals with a stunning 22-20 14-21 21-16 win over world No. 17 Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich of Germany in a match that lasted close to an hour.

Satwiksairaj also paired up with Chirag Shetty in the men’s doubles to notch up an upset 21-18 23-21 win over the seventh-seeded South Korean combination of Choi Solgyu and Seo Seung Jae.

Prannoy, however, failed to cross the second-round hurdle, going down 17-21 18-21 to Malaysia’s Daren Liew, a day after battling through pain to upstage Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie in a gruelling three-game match.

Also bowing out were MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila after losing 9-21 11-21 to English pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy. — PTI

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